When Diane Paulus decided to create the musical “Waitress” at the A.R.T., she did not predict the #MeToo movement that would follow six years later and heighten the show’s relevance. But she did feel that domestic abuse was not receiving the attention it deserved and that she could tell a story through music to reveal its profound effects.

“The idea that a musical could do this motivated me,” said Paulus, the artistic director of the American Repertory Theater who adapted the 2007 film of the same name. “And now we’re in a powerful moment where we see that domestic abuse can no longer be swept under the rug.”

As she anticipates “Waitress” opening at The Boston Opera House Feb. 20, Paulus is excited that audiences will see the show that sold-out during its 2015 Cambridge run and that has improved since it opened on Broadway in 2016. While her American Repertory Theater productions of “Porgy and Bess,” “Hair,” and “Pippin,” also went to Broadway, “Waitress” is the first new musical to do so. Getting a show on Broadway is not just the pinnacle of theater achievement, it’s an opportunity to push a show to new levels.

“If the show had been finished after the A.R.T., we wouldn’t have been able to make it better,” Paulus said. “So much about musical theater is about intense collaboration, and we were able to get back in the room and keep it going.”

To cast the national tour, Paulus reunited with her all-female creative team and selected Desi Oakley as Jenna, the waitress at the center of the story. Oakley starred in the Broadway productions of “Les Miserables” and “Evita.”

“We handpicked everyone,” Paulus said. “The show does not have big splashy numbers, but the score is demanding. It’s not traditional musical theater singing, and you have to have someone with singing chops of the highest caliber who also is an actor with wit and heart who can take the audience inside a crucial journey.”

Jenna is a diner waitress who faces an unwanted pregnancy after a drunken encounter with a husband she doesn’t love, a man who tries to control her with verbal and physical threats. She also is a gifted baker, who is hiding her wages from her husband in order to compete in a baking contest to win enough money to free herself from the marriage.

“She’s not just good, she’s a genius pie maker, but she just can’t pack her life into a pie,” Paulus said. “She needs to deal with her life.”

Like a pie, Jenna has an appealing crust, shaped by the warmth and humor of her friendships with her quirky and feisty fellow waitresses. But the filling inside her is bubbling with regret and fear about her husband, which later is calmed by her self-confidence from an improbable love affair with her obstetrician.

To tell that story of transformation, Paulus made the unorthodox choice to hire Sara Bareilles, who had no experience writing music and lyrics for theater but whose songs compellingly and beautifully expressed emotional depth and wit. As Bareilles said in a publicity interview, “It seemed like an absolutely crazy idea. Lucky for me, though, I had just entered a phase of saying yes to doing crazy things.” Bareilles went on to receive a Grammy Award nomination for best musical theater album in 2017, and she now is on stage as Jenna in the Broadway production, a role originated by Jessie Mueller.

Before Paulus committed to Bareilles, she asked her to write a song, and “She Used to Be Mine” became the most powerful, significant song in the show. Jenna realizes she has succumbed to her fear of her husband and lack of hope for a better life, and decides to summon the courage and strength that she once had and divorce him.

“The song showed me how Sara understood Jenna’s character,” Paulus said. “It’s the recognition moment where she sees that ‘I was this person once and where did that person go?’ We know we can’t change without recognition. All the things that have happened to her have pushed her to this moment when she can see herself, and then everything else is possible.”

When the show moved to Broadway, Paulus wanted to heighten the importance of Jenna’s creativity. She asked Bareilles to write another song, which became “What Baking Can Do” and brought on choreographer Lorin Latarro to give physical form to Jenna’s talent and fantasies. Book writer Jessie Nelson restructured some scenes, and set designer Scott Pask added a proscenium of revolving pies.

And despite the small lobby of the Brooks Atkinson Theater, Paulus found space to hang a string where audience members can clip paper slips from waitress pads written with their thoughts. One of these notes Paulus will always remember.

“The writer thanked me for saving her life and that was a shock to the gut,” Paulus said. “When I saw that testimony, I thought, 'This is why I made this musical.'”

Her pride also comes from the fact that “Waitress” has Broadway’s first all female creative team of director, songwriter, choreographer and book writer and is a financial success.

“I did not start out saying I’m going to build a team that is all women, but it’s important that it’s noted,” she said. “We broke the barrier because women are at the top of the field and we were able to reflect the reality of our world in the 21st century. And we created a show that recouped its investment, and only a small percentage of shows do that.”

Her next musical, “Jagged Little Pill,” is based on Alanis Morisette’s 1995 album and premiers at the A.R.T. May 5- June 30.

As for her vow to bake a pie for her two daughters, that is one area she falls short.

“I never did bake a pie,” Paulus confessed. “I’ve come to accept that production is my pie, and I’m going to let myself off the hook.”